Tied Up
by Nail Strafer
Summary: Scarlet Altruis has a simple job from the Cornerian military: locate and neutralize a laughing mad Venomian terrorist hiding in the jungles of Fortuna. Joshua Ronfauni of the Fortunan Rangers is after the same thing, unbeknownst to either of them. Little do they know what will happen when they finally cross paths... My entry in Sheppard SD's OC pairing fic challenge.


_A/N: Those of you who are regular readers of mine probably wonder what this fic is. Over on the Foxhole—a Star Fox fic writing community I'm a part of—Sheppard SD and Demo ODST came up with the idea for a writing challenge. Shep created a spreadsheet, the Foxhole community filled it in with original characters (OCs) of ours, and then we had a random number generator assign each of us a pair of OCs to write a dating fic about. Hilarity ensued. _

_Even if this fic only has OCs, I decided to share it here because it's still set in the Star Fox universe and this is a convenient place to get feedback. You'll probably be seeing the rest of our challenge entries soon in the archive, if the others decide to post theirs here. _

_Anyway, I ended up with Joshua Ronfauni (belongs to Strikira AKA Wolfrider) and Scarlet Altruis (belongs to K.S. Reynard). This fic was pretty fun to write and I'm surprised I got it done this fast, considering I typically don't write romance/date fics. Josh and Scarlet play off each other really well as you'll see, so that's probably why. It was quite fun to write both of them. _

_KS, Strikira, glad you guys enjoyed beta reading this before I posted it! And the rest of you...if you want to see more of these two OCs, definitely check out KS's and Strikira's stories after you're done reading this one, specifically 'The Oasis' and 'Sierra Foxtrot' on KS' profile. And if you want to know why Scarlet keeps mentioning someone named Sheila, definitely check out Sheppard SD's stories and enjoy Sheila's floofy goodness :P _

~X~

Scarlet swatted the side of her face, flinging away another mosquito flying inside her triangular ear. It landed on the sleeve of her catsuit, the crimson red vixen smashing it against her arm and leaving behind a yellow gooey splat. She cursed, rubbing some of it away. It'd been like this for the past four days here on Fortuna. The moment she'd stepped off her ship in the Boneyard, she'd been under non-stop attack, the horde of insects putting up an overwhelming assault that would make the Aparoids blush.

She didn't feel any closer to finding her target now compared to when she first got this job. Why'd all these Venomian holdouts need to hide so deep in the bush? What kept them going year after year attacking Corneria's military outposts, even though the Lylat Wars ended well over a decade ago? What was the point anymore? They weren't any better than these relentless bugs.

The local Cornerian units stationed here had tried killing or capturing the target several times themselves, but they'd found little else except for booby traps and explosives whenever they were about to capture him. Scarlet came in at this point, because the grunts were tired of dealing with the problem and had outsourced it to her, a mercenary. The money they'd offered seemed enormous for the capture or kill of one holdout, so she'd leaped right at it. Now she wished she had asked for double the amount, at the minimum…

_Rustle, rustle. _

Scarlet whipped around, pointing her blaster rifle in the direction of the sound. Nothing was there but the thick foliage all around her, the leaves obscuring her vision to only a few meters away. Something crashed out of the branches above her, the vixen jerking her weapon up. However, it was a non-sentient bird, flapping off to go above the tree cover. Sighing, Scarlet lowered her weapon, returning her attention to the path before her. Another false alarm, thank goodness. It was nerve-wracking though, never knowing if all the noises she heard were her target, a harmless animal, or some not-so-harmless animal that could rip her to pieces…

Anyway, only one more potential lead was left on the target's location, and she'd saved this one for last given how deep it was in this green hell. A speeder craft would have been great for flying straight to the location, but the grunts warned her this bastard was slippery, and the sound of any aircraft would alert him and give him ample time to slip away into the foliage. _Too stupid to know the Lylat Wars are over, but too smart to get caught out easily. An irritating combination. _

Hopefully, the hunt would be over soon. She stopped to check her map, revealing the target location was less than half a kilometer away. A smile crossed her face, her heart pumping in excitement but also nervousness. If this guy was as crafty as Corneria said he was, she'd need to be careful from here on out. Scarlet pulled the blaster rifle off of her back, creeping along and wincing every time a leaf crunched underfoot. She nudged aside branches in her way with the rifle's barrel, so as not to make too much noise while also being ready to shoot if needed. Ahead of her the ground sloped downwards into a valley, although she saw a pathway with a gentler grade leading to the bottom.

Her eyes widened when she spotted a boot print in the mud. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through a set of images, stopping on a picture of a similar print the Cornerians had given her. Standard issue Venomian Type 5 boot pattern, the same type of print found at all the other places he'd left his bombs. It had to be him! She grinned, looking down the path and spotting more prints, but remembered to temper her enthusiasm.

_Don't get too excited, Scarlet. We need to handle this calm and methodically._

Creeping down the hillside, she came to a small stream flowing through the canyon, rock walls towering over her, with the trees reaching up past the lip of the canyon. She moved slowly now, trying to not disturb the leaves too much. As she turned around a rock, she found herself looking at a small brook bubbling through the middle, the entrance of a cave across the water. This must be the place. She scanned the area for traps, but saw nothing.

_Snap._

She spun around, scanning the bushes and trees behind her. Their leaves billowed in the breeze flowing through the valley, making a rustle that would have been soothing if this were a nature walk. Instead, it made it harder to hear if something or someone was out there.

Light trickled in through the tree cover, casting harsh shadows while also casting brilliant pools of light, some of them twinkling on little spots of dew clinging to the leaves. Nothing out of the ordinary…until she spotted a particular shimmer of light, pointing her weapon at it. That wasn't dew drops. Something disrupted the light in an unnatural way, like a piece of broken glass. Looking closer, she spotted the shape of a head, legs, arms… It was a silhouette of a bipedal creature, rendered nearly invisible. Scarlet froze, not able to see the thing's eyes but knowing it stared right back at her.

The figure moved, its hand reaching down for something. Gasping, she opened fire, laser blasts flashing through the undergrowth, blasting small bits of leaves into the air, sending them tumbling around like confetti. She hid behind a rock, risking a peek out.

_Oh shit...it's gone. _

At most, she'd been expecting somebody in tattered Venomian fatigues with a beat up blaster rifle, crying "Long live Emperor Andross!" as he charged her. Not optical camouflage, like the freaking monster from _Inviso Dreadlock Demise_! She gazed around the bushes and trees, pieces of leaves still fluttering to the ground. The thing had made a mistake before, letting her see it. She doubted it would make the same mistake twice. The swaying leaves made it difficult to distinguish where the figure was now, disrupting any outline she could spot… Even so, it had to be looking at her right now, waiting for her to make a move. She couldn't stay here forever, being behind a rock in an otherwise open area. An indeterminate amount of time passed, Scarlet waiting to see if the creature would appear again. Sweat rolled down her side, more nervous as the minutes ticked by.

_Crunch, crunch, crunch _went the pebbly ground behind her.

She spun around…finding herself face to face with the invisible silhouette. But even with only an outline, she could see a weapon in its hand, pointed right at her. With a buzzing noise the invisibility faded away, revealing a figure in a gray, black, and green body suit. A helmet with a solid black visor concealed his face, making him look even more alien. However, the helmet was shaped to accommodate a canine muzzle, along with triangles on top for the ears. So…not Venomian?

"Put it down," said the digitized voice coming from the helmet.

That accent...what was it? The vowels were strong, but even with his commanding tone it sounded almost…pleasant. She sure didn't expect him to sound like this.

Scarlet set the blaster rifle on the ground, looking at the masked individual. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same question, sheila." There was the pleasant, musical voice again.

"Sheila?" Scarlet raised an eyebrow. "But...that's not my name. Sheila's one of my friends. She's a husky."

"What are you on about?" He was getting annoyed now. "I don't know your name."

"But you called me Sheila."

"Woman!" The armored canine waved his arms around, almost looking like he was about to throw a childish tantrum. "Sheila means woman!"

"Why not just say woman?"

"Because it's…" The canine breathed, sighing as he lowered his weapon. "Oh, never mind. You're obviously not a lizard, so I'm guessing you're not who I'm looking for."

"Likewise." She smiled. This conversation was the last thing Scarlet expected to happen coming face to face with what looked like an invisible alien monster, but she wasn't complaining. "I'm Scarlet Altruis. I'm a mercenary hired by the local Cornerian outposts to hunt down the Giggle Bomber."

"Giggle Bomber, huh? That frilled dragon named Keenan? Been after him myself. Crazy guy he is, planting bombs all over the place." The canine undid a catch on the side of his helmet. He pulled it off, shaking a mass of black hair once free of it. He was a tribal wolf with gray fur, accented by dark fur around the eyes, making it look something like a mask. She liked the small accent of orange fur under his eyes too… "Sergeant Joshua Ronfauni, Fortunan Rangers, codename Howler. Sorry about before. Musta scared you something awful with that invisibility huh?"

"You sure did." Scarlet paused to look over his suit. "I've never seen anything like that invisibility though. And that suit's very form-fitting, aside from the armor padding." She looked him over, grinning_. _"I like it."

"I can see why, if you're wearing that." Josh indicated towards her cat suit, grinning as well.

It was more or less one of her regular cat suits, only done up with green camouflage to help her better blend into the jungle surroundings. She admitted it looked silly, but she was damned if she was going to wear standard baggy jungle fatigues while traipsing through the jungle. Joshua himself was taking a peek when he thought she wasn't paying attention. She didn't mind though, since she was doing the same thing…

"So, this is a case of the left hand not talking to the right hand?" Scarlet asked.

"Yeah. Both my Fortunans and your Cornerians seem to be after the same thing. I presume you were about to go in there like I was?" He pointed towards the nearby cave entrance.

Scarlet nodded. "Been trying to find this guy for the past few days."

"Same here. He's a slippery little bugger. I'm so damn tired of that giggle his bombs play before they go off."

Scarlet rolled her eyes. "The Cornerian soldiers around here feel exactly the same way."

Josh held up his rifle, Scarlet now noticing it was a kinetic weapon, with a banana-shaped clip protruding out of the underside. Interesting. Maybe he preferred it because they were more reliable in harsh conditions like the jungle?

"Anyway, what do you say we get this done, yeah?"

Scarlet nodded. "Maybe you should go first. Catch him off guard with that camouflage."

"Okay…" Josh smiled, before he slipped the helmet back on over his head. "Oh, hate wearing this stupid thing. So hot in the jungle." Within seconds the suit changed color again, leaving nothing but a vague silhouette where he was standing. Jeez it looked creepy, even knowing a hot guy was hiding underneath that.

He took the lead into the cave, Scarlet following at a safe distance, but as the darkness increased she wasn't sure anymore how close she was to him. She turned the corner and accidentally bumped into him. The invisible wolf stumbled forward a bit, Scarlet muttering. "Sorry."

Up ahead in the passage, there was a soft, flickering light, kind of like one from a flame. As they turned the corner, they found a torch flickering on the wall, casting dim light and long shadows throughout a chamber strewn with tables, pieces of metal, and chemicals for making bombs. The place was empty of people however.

"Damn, he's not here." Scarlet watched the silhouette of Josh's rifle wave around. "He musta slipped away again."

Scarlet lowered her weapon, disappointed. Here came more time amongst the best of nature Fortuna had to offer, with the sauna-like humidity and the mosquitoes…yay.

"Let's look around for clues." Josh switched off his invisibility and removed the helmet again. "Maybe we can find intel on his next targets, get some more data on where he could be."

An old, rusted safe sat in the back corner, conspicuous amongst the rest of the items in the room.

"Think we should look in there?" Scarlet asked. "I don't have any tools to crack it open though.

"Ha, no need." Josh grinned as he cracked his fingers, putting a hand on the dial and an ear to the safe's door. He twisted the knob a few times, and she heard an audible clunk from the metal box. "Easy peasy!" He laughed.

"You know how to crack safes?"

"Of course! We have extensive courses on safe cracking in Fortunan wilderness survival training. I've got top marks in it myself!"

Scarlet raised her eyebrows. "You find a lot of safes in the jungle?"

"Nah, I'm messing with you." He pointed to the side of the safe, where some numbers and arrows were etched into the metal. "He put the combination here."

Scarlet rolled her eyes in irritation, although she had to suppress a chuckle too. With a smile, Josh opened the safe to dramatically reveal…a set of pipe bombs duct-taped together. With fifteen seconds on a detonator's display. That started counting down.

A speaker built into the bomb crackled to life. "Hehehehe!" Scarlet knew that laugh. It was the same voice clip built into all the bombs the Giggle Bomber had planted before. She was so irritated hearing it again she almost forgot the imminent danger they were in. "Hope you all enjoy the shooooooooow!" the squeaky voice cried out, as the bomb ticked down to ten seconds.

"Bloody crazy wanker!" Josh cried out.

"I don't know what a wanker is, but we need to go!" Scarlet grabbed the wolf's wrist, the two of them rushing back through the cave passage. Just as they ran outside and the daylight blinded them, the bomb went off, flinging them into the nearby stream with a loud splash, rocks and pebbles splashing into the water around them like hail.

Scarlet pulled herself out of the water, her long, raven black hair tangled and wet from the quick soaking. She shook her head, trying to get the water out of it as best as she could. Looking back, the entrance to the cave was now buried under several tons of rock, along with anything else they could scavenge.

"Back to square one…" Scarlet muttered. "I'd like to rip off Keenan's frill now and make it into a skirt."

"You won't get any arguments from me, sheila." Josh said, taking off his helmet again.

"I said my name is—" Scarlet caught herself, smiling and shaking her head. "Sorry."

Josh laughed. He sure had some funny slang on top of his accent. Did everyone from Fortuna talk like this? She liked it…really helped lighten the mood compared to the more direct, formal speech of Cornerians.

He jumped out of the stream, the water dripping off of him giving his tight-fitting suit a shiny highlight, emphasizing all the curves and bulges around his muscles. Scarlet took a moment to have a look, finding her eyes drifting downwards. When she met Josh's eyes, she found him doing the same thing as he looked at her chest, probably noticing a lot more detail with her clothes wet. The two of them locked eyes, realizing what they were doing. An uncomfortable silence settled between the two.

"Umm…yeah." He brushed some of the excess water off, before looking into the sky. The sun descended to the horizon, the sky tinted orange towards the west. "It'll be dark soon. Where you spendin' the night?"

"The Boneyard…" Scarlet's ears curled back. "But it took a lot longer to make it out here than I expected. I should get going now."

Josh shook his head. "Don't try hiking through the jungle at night. It'll be pitch dark by the time you make it back. I'm a local, and even I wouldn't try it unless it was an emergency."

"I do _not _want to spend the night out in this jungle. I need to get back to my hotel room and take a shower."

"Yeah? Well, on Fortuna, a lotta things come out in the dark that you don't want to meet. You know nine out of the ten deadliest spiders in Lylat are on Fortuna, right? Some of them are bigger than a dinner plate. And it doesn't take much to piss any of them off. Even looking at them funny can get them after you. Walk underneath one and they'll drop right on ya."

_A spider bigger than a dinner plate… _Scarlet trembled, a cold shake running down her back as she imagined looking up and seeing one about to land on her face.

"Look, come with me to my camp. You can spend the night there. It's not far away."

Though Scarlet loathed the idea of roughing it, she had to admit the Container Hotel over at the Boneyard wasn't much better. It was the best hotel in the town according to the locals…and they were right, but that was a pretty low bar to clear. Sleeping in a metal box heated up from sitting under a hot sun all day wasn't the best way to sleep. And she would be alone too… It'd been ages since the last time she'd seen Fox, and even longer since the last time he'd convinced her to come to bed with him.

She had to admit this Josh guy had a nice ass…emphasized by his tail swaying behind him. The dash of orange fur on the tip caught the eye. Ah, what the hell, she wouldn't mind roughing it if someone like him was around. He looked like he was interested too anyway.

"Okay, lead the way."

He nodded, waving for her to follow after. While the trek through the jungle was shorter than the trip back to the Boneyard, Scarlet found herself winded, the sun about to disappear over the horizon by the time they made it back to Josh's little encampment. He had a green Fortunan military tent set up there, along with a fire pit rounded by rocks nearby. It was nothing special to look at, but he'd selected a place with an impressive view over a huge jungle valley.

"Wow…" She moved over to the edge of the cliff, looking down into the valley. A river carved its way through the passage, while a distant waterfall far in the background created a cloud-like mist of water visible even from here. It gave the place a primordial, dream-like look, enhanced by the orange tint of the sunset.

"View's a beaut, isn't it?" Josh said.

Scarlet turned to him, smiling. He grinned back…but then the smile vanished from his face.

He ripped a knife out of his belt, holding it by the blade as he looked right at her. She was about to ask what he was doing when he threw the knife…sending it whistling past her, the wind currents disrupting her fur. A loud 'thunk' sounded behind her, followed by a screeching sound, cut off by garbled, bubbly noises as the cry died. She turned around, fur bristling along her back as she spied a giant lizard there, with pebbly, leathery skin, tinted a bluish-green. The knife's blade was right between its bulbous eyes, its jaws open and ready to latch onto Scarlet's leg…

Scarlet jumped, leaping to get away from it. "Wh-what is this?!"

"Sleepwell Lizard…" Without missing a beat, Josh walked over to the fresh corpse, pulling out the knife and using it to cut the thing up. "Sounds like a pleasant name, but highly venomous. It's called 'sleepwell' because if it bites you that's what its venom will do to you…and then you die." He stripped off the tough outer skin, getting to the meatier bits underneath. Nausea washed over Scarlet as she watched him work, turning away before she threw up.

"Gotta be careful cutting up the flesh too, or you might pierce the venom sac by accident and get it all through the body," he explained. "Can't eat it after that."

"Eat it? What?!"

"Yeah…we're lucky. It's gonna be our dinner tonight." Josh grinned, returning his attention to the lizard as Scarlet heard the unpleasant, squishy sound of meat being torn apart. "Don't worry though, I've done this a bunch of times since I was a young lad. I know the right places to cut."

Scarlet was freaking out, worried about a lot of other things besides Josh preparing it wrong. "Do you…umm…have anything else to eat?" She kept her eyes on the view of the valley, but couldn't stop thinking about Josh ripping the poor creature to pieces.

"Not much. I usually don't carry food with me while I'm out in the bush. It's easy enough to find what I need out here anyway. Like right now, see?" He laughed. "Fortunan rangers are trained to survive in the wild indefinitely. I've got plenty of fruits and veggies though, if that's more your thing. Try whatever you want."

Standing up from the lizard for a moment, he went into his tent and returned with something in his hand. It was a broad-sized leaf, taken from one of the plants nearby. He unfurled it, revealing a colorful selection of berries, larger fruits, peppers, and other edibles. She found her eyes drawn to a peculiar-looking pepper, conical in shape and blue in color. Fortuna had a lot of exotic species of flora and fauna, but something like this was new to her. She reached out for it, but Josh covered it up with his hand.

"Oh trust me, you don't wanna try that one."

Scarlet smirked, seeing it as a challenge, since spicy foods were kind of her thing. "And why not? You said I could try anything I wanted." Not to mention she didn't like how cowardly she'd just been, and wanted to prove she wasn't easily intimidated.

Josh picked the blue pepper off of the leaf, holding it by the tips of his fingers. "This is a Euca Pepper. You know how blue stars burn hotter than white and red stars? You could say the same thing about this one. So hot we—"

Scarlet snatched it out of his fingers and took a small bite off the tip, all in the same motion, a big grin on her face. Didn't seem bad so far...but then it felt as though someone had lit a fire in her mouth. From the small spark, it spread all along her tongue and straight down her throat. Scarlet panted, opening her mouth and waving a hand at her face to cool herself. The snot in her nose flowed out, eyes watering on her face.

Josh chuckled, handing her a tissue. She accepted it gratefully, wiping it over her face. He took a yellow fruit, squeezed it into a nearby small cup, and held the cup out to her. Nodding her thanks, she took it and drank it down. It put out the fire faster than a thunderstorm rolling over a burning house.

"Tried to warn you." Josh chuckled.

As the neutralizing liquid did its work, she wiped her nose again. "Thought I could handle it. I eat spicy food every chance I get… Even Mad Dog Hot Sauce hardly affects me."

"You haven't met the Euca Pepper. I like spice too, but I wasn't planning to _eat _it… I got one because I've been sniffly lately. Helps clears the sinuses."

"You can say that again…" Scarlet blew her nose once more, snot still running down the tip of her muzzle. God she must look undignified doing this.

Josh didn't seem to mind though, grinning at her, like her moment of weakness was endearing. Taking the Euca Pepper where she dropped it, he put his nose over the tip, taking some light sniffs.

"Ah yeah…" He pulled out his own tissue and rubbed down his face. "That's better. Anyway, I wouldn't wish eating these on my worst enemy. Had to eat _three _of them as part of a ritual to prove my manhood back over in my village, when I was a much younger lad."

"Village?"

"Yeah… Fortuna's full of tribes living out in the jungle, you know."

"In all this?"

"Yeah, we find ways to adapt. It's how I got my position as a ranger. The training wasn't much rougher than what I deal with daily, so I passed it with flying colors. In some ways it was easier. We had running water and electricity and whatnot at our barracks. I woulda slept outside if they let me. Anyway…" He pointed to some of the other peppers displayed on the leaf. "This one's good for cooking. Or this one. Or some of these. Still pretty hot but we don't mind using them for spices. Keeps you from eating too fast, so your stomach has time to fill up while you wait to get full."

"Heh, I know. It's the reason I got into spicy food in the first place. Too bad over time I became immune to it…or so I thought. I guess I'll go with these." She pointed at a few of them.

Josh took the peppers she selected, throwing them into a bowl and grinding them up. He moved to the fire pit, collecting some kebabs from there and going back to the lizard's meat. He skewered chunks of the meat onto the metal pole along with the other bits of fruit, covering all of them with the freshly ground peppers. Within a few minutes he had a roaring fire going in the pit, the fire hissing as bits of fat in the meat fell off and hit the burning logs below. The smell of pepper wafted in the air, tinging Scarlet's nostrils.

As the meat finished up, he held out one of the kebabs to her. "Go on, try it."

While she was uneasy about eating meat she'd seen killed in front of her, nonetheless she took a bite of one of the meat chunks. Oh wow! What an explosion of spiciness, sweetness, and other flavors! This sleepwell lizard meat wasn't bad at all. She nodded back her thanks, eating more pieces of it along with the fruit.

Josh grinned, taking his own kebab and pulling off little pieces of it, popping them into his mouth. Pretty good stuff. Mmm…and she wasn't talking about just the food either, still admiring the wolf's figure as he ate.

Josh turned back to his tent, frowning. "Looks like the wind's loosened some of the ropes holding it up."

Scarlet jumped up. "Let me help. I know a thing or two about ropes." Within a few minutes, she'd gotten most of them tightened up, the tent's fabric almost as steady as solid walls now, hardly a ripple as the wind blew across their taught form.

"Wow…" Josh stroked his chin. "Even I couldn't do them that tight in ranger school. Where'd you learn to tie?"

She gave a nervous smile, looking away. Did she want to tell him where she'd gotten her experience? Yeah, he seemed like he was interested in her, although there were some people who didn't exactly share her tastes in the bedroom…

"You…want to know? You sure?"

"Of course. I'd like to learn your technique. A tight knot can be critical for survival, you know."

Scarlet's eyes bulged, as she tried to hide her face. _Oh, you've got no idea how wrong that sounds right now. _

"I mean like…for when you're rock climbing or something." He continued.

Scarlet had to stifle a laugh. Even so, she was a little concerned what he'd think once he told her the truth.

"Well…" Scarlet's tail swayed behind her, twitching once in a while. "How would you feel…if I told you I learned about ropes because I'm…into bondage?"

Joshua's eyes widened.

Scarlet sighed. _Great. I blew it. He's creeped out now. _Scarlet looked away, embarrassed.

"Really?" Josh said, walking up next to her. "What a coincidence…I'm into it too." She looked at the ropes she'd done, admiring the tent.

Scarlet spun around, surprised. Was she hearing him right? "You're not joking, are you?"

"If you can hoist up a tent with rope like that, what else can you do?" He glanced at her, then glanced at the tent's flap.

What a lucky day. Sure, she'd lost the Giggle Bomber, although this seemed like a pretty nice consolation prize. She almost forgot that's why she'd come out here in the first place… Maybe this trip out here wasn't so bad after all. She returned the smile, taking her harness off, leaving her with just the catsuit.

Sure, she barely knew him, but they had such good chemistry. She'd never met someone who was both into form fitting clothing and bondage too. It was like the stars and planets had aligned. This opportunity was staring her in the face. Maybe she should take it.

"If you like, I can show you. I can tie you down real tight."

"Would be glad to see it." He too started removing his body armor. "I could show you some of my own skill, sheila."

"I told you I'm…" She stifled a laugh. "You know what, you can call me Sheila all night long if you want." She moved a hand to the zipper on the front of her suit, unzipping it a little, giving him a small peek at the goods.

"All night?" Joshua's eyes lit up, his tail dancing behind him. "…Sheila?"

She laughed. She doubted she would ever get used to that, considering the Sheila she knew. "Hmm…maybe I should call you Wolf now."

"Wolf? But why would you call me by my species? That's kinda dumb."

"You'd be surprised how many parents in Lylat lack imagination when naming their kids." Scarlet rolled her eyes. "I know some of their children. Anyway, let's forget about that for now…Wolf."

"Sure, Sheila."

The two of them smirked, heading into the tent and zipping it closed behind them, while the zippers opened up on their own garments and the spare ropes came out.


End file.
